Residents of the District’s Ward 8 can soon add Good Food Markets to the short list of fresh, healthy food options in the community. The grocery store located at 4001 South Capitol Street SW is expected to open in the third quarter of 2019 as part of a mixed-use development property in the Bellevue neighborhood, according to Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“We can come on a street like this that has great transportation access, bus service, and now it will have a new grocery where people in 195 units are right above it,” said Bowser at a groundbreaking for the site on Thursday afternoon.
The Good Food Markets chain stems from a local initiative that prides itself on serving areas deemed food deserts. The community grocery store, which began in 2015 with a pilot location on Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast, is designed to thrive in neighborhoods which have been overlooked by traditional supermarkets. The retail team creates a full-service grocery selection in a fraction of the space, while also paying a living wage and offering educational and training opportunities in the community.
“We hire local residents and have 100 percent D.C. employees right now,” said Philip Sambol, co-founder of Good Food Markets.
Grocery stores are rare east of the Anacostia River. There’s only one supermarket in Ward 8 and two in Ward 7, neighborhoods with a combined population of about 150,000 people. More than 80 percent of food deserts in the District are in neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates, populated by minority residents. There are plenty of big-box grocery stores and independently owned supermarkets in whiter and wealthier parts of town, like Northwest D.C.
For customers who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, better known as food stamps, Good Food Markets provides an additional 15 percent discount on all fresh produce.
Because of the lack of neighboring grocery stores, many residents in Ward 8 have to shop in Maryland and Virginia, where costs are lower, or rely on nearby corner stores.
“I think a lot of people will come [to Good Food Markets] instead of going to Eastover and the Oxon Hill side,” said Isabelle Jenkins, a long-time Ward 8 resident. “I can catch one bus and be here in about three or four minutes.”
Jenkins, 68, lives in the ward’s Washington Highlands neighborhood. She arrived early to the groundbreaking ceremony and carefully chose a seat in the third row.
“I had to come, and I’m quite pleased to see it,” Jenkins said of the project’s architectural rendering.
Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White, who was also in attendance, has said the lack of healthy food contributes to health problems in the ward. And that’s just one reason, White said, that he remains focused on the people that the new building will serve.
“We want to welcome new people,” White said. “But we especially want to help those who have been struggling here as well.”
Through the Neighborhood Prosperity Fund, an initiative launched by Mayor Bowser, South Capitol Improvement LLC received an $880,000 grant to support the buildout for a grocer tenant inside the 225,000 square-foot development. It includes 195 units of affordable housing and 5,500 square-feet of commercial space.
This story originally appeared at WAMU.
